What is the Tomatometer®?

The Tomatometer rating – based on the published opinions of hundreds of film and television critics – is a trusted measurement of movie and TV programming quality for millions of moviegoers. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show.

From the Critics

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Fresh

The Tomatometer is 60% or higher.

Rotten

The Tomatometer is 59% or lower.

Certified Fresh

Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Reviews

This is a real movie, with all those elements that have proved sure-fire through history; Laughter, tears, involvement, thrills, wonderment. Steven Spielberg also adds a message: Human beings and spacelings should learn to co-exist.

E.T. ...comes to a beleaguered industry like a gift from the gods. Not only does it get bums on seats but it encourages the kind of shared enjoyment that suggests the cinema still has something unique to offer.

It lifts you into its make-believe in the wonderfully enriching way that only movies can do. I wouldn't be surprised if 'E.T.' eventually turned into the kind of durable classic that can be revived indefinitely for future generations.

With a touching relationship at the core of its compelling narrative, along with a brilliant score and nostalgic special effects, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial remains one of director Steven Spielberg's most beloved films.

Spielberg would seem to be groping towards a virtual theology of space, space as Heaven, offering solace to a world which has foolishly renounced its traditional God but still aches to extend its own spiritual frontiers.

E.T. is essentially a spiritual autobiography, a portrait of the filmmaker as a typical suburban kid set apart by an uncommonly fervent, mystical imagination. It comes out disarmingly funny, spontaneous, bighearted.

Captivating, endearingly optimistic and magical at times, Steven Spielberg's fantasy about a stranded alien from outer space protected by three kids until it can arrange for passage home is certain to capture the imagination of the world's youth.

What's perhaps most amazing about E.T., what distinguishes it from many of the other fantasy films of its era, is its ability to put an audience under a spell of childlike wonderment without infantilizing it.